How President Trump Can Respond as EU’s Antitrust Chief Digs In

February 19, 2025

In an interview Tuesday with Reuters, Teresa Ribera, the second-most powerful official in the European Commission, made it clear that the EU is digging in its heels against demands by the White House for fairer treatment of American companies facing colossal fines.

“We need to stick to our strengths and principles,” Ribera, Europe powerful antitrust regulator, said. “We need to be flexible, but we cannot transact on human rights nor are we going to transact on the unity of Europe, and we are not going to transact on democracy and values.”

What Ribera’s statement makes clear is that the Europeans see their approach to antitrust and the treatment of consumer data as matters of inviolable principle. European intransigency is made worse by the fact that its cases against large U.S. companies – two are pending now against Apple and Meta Platforms – stem from unreasonably broad and intrusive laws, the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act, that were drafted with the encouragement of former FTC Chair Lina Khan and other senior people in the Biden Administration.

Ribera might be forgiven for feeling a little whipsawed after having American leaders who for years encouraged Europe to break up and degrade our own technology companies. Now she must adjust to the new sheriff.

Where to go from here? Not only are the Europeans intransigent. They have also boxed themselves into a dilemma. They cannot fully bend to the concerns of the Trump Administration, well-articulated by Vice President J.D. Vance in Paris, without breaking their new laws. Perhaps for the moment, the best outcome would be to encourage Europe to take a breather, and tread lightly.

Over time, the United States, the European Union and its 27 member-nations need to negotiate a new playing field for American tech, one that doesn’t put America’s largest and most successful companies at risk of multi-billion fines every other day.

One action might be for the Trump Administration to challenge the Digital Markets Act’s fines of up to 10 percent of a company’s annual global turnover – and 20 percent for a second infraction. Enough of these amount to death-penalty fines, even for the world’s largest companies.

• The president’s trade officials should challenge the policy rationale – and before the World Trade Organization, the legal justifications – for amassing such fines on revenues on a worldwide basis.

After all, why should the EU be able to fine an American company for what it does in the United States and the rest of the globe? And if that is to be the new principle, should the Trump Administration apply it to European companies for infractions here? A little deterrence might work wonders.

• Even with such leverage, expect stubborn resistance from Brussels, Paris, and Berlin. The Trump Administration might have to get tough with individual countries and tariff their brie, cars, and (here’s to you Teresa) Rioja wine.

Buckle up, it’s going to be bumpy ride.